RF Online Peek #4

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Publisher Codemasters' Michael Rowland tells us about a central focus of play in CCR's game, the combat element

By IGN Staff

The Accretian Empire is an autocratic regime with citizens completely devoted to the welfare of the collective. They are willing to lay down their lives to expand its borders. Not that they die easily; being a mechanized race with powerful weaponry, its soldiers are extremely formidable opponents. Comprising many jurisdictions, the Cora people's Holy Alliance has also known war, invariably in furtherance of its deeply held spiritual convictions. In battle, its forces make use of potent magic derived from their devotion as well as a selection of traditional armaments made even more deadly by adding the blessings of their deity.

CCR's RF Online is a persistent state world offering three playable factions. The third is the Bellato Union. Short of stature due to the gravity on their home planet, its members are very capable both physically and intellectually. When facing the prospect of hostilities, they can deploy a variety of armored mechs. This is not an infrequent occurrence since the race is constantly searching for new resources it can exploit, by force if necessary, in pursuit of its ambitious primary goal, economic domination of the cosmos. Codemasters will launch the title next year in the North American and UK markets.

Includes an exclusive 1600x1200 screenshot

Combat

RF Online brings together three warring factions in an epic battle to claim or reclaim lands that are rich in resources. With such a central feature, PvP combat is of key importance to a game of this nature. Today's article will cover some of the aspects of combat that each faction utilizes during this brutal war.

it is very possible to put in the time and multi-class your character by using different class weapons and spells to gain experience in these particular weapons.

The PvP focus doesn't describe the grandness of the in-game action that players will experience. As a player, you will be an integral member of one of the three factions, united by the blood that flows through your veins - or oil in the case of the Accretians. Battles will be fought as one nation, won as one nation, lost as one nation. RF Online brings epic battles among entire races, allowing a massive RvRvR experience. Combat will be frantic, fantastical and rewarding, allowing players to excel in their preferred battle tactics, be it as a warrior, a spiritualist or an archer.

The huge RvRvR battles occur every eight hours within the mining area. The objective is to capture the opposing forces chips, and to gain control over the area. Tactics and team co-ordination are integral to success. With forces split between defending your own chip and attacking rival areas, a good leader is key. Within RF, there is a system that ranks players through their PvP score and success. A race leader is selected through this system, allowing top players to lead the entire race into battle while feeding out strategies and plans. The leader also has an option to form alliances with another faction if, for instance, one faction is far more powerful.

The PvP scoring system is designed to reward players for eliminating higher-level players, and in retrospect, penalizing them for low-level killing, commonly referred to as ganking.

Players that die don't lose items or experience endurance loss with equipped items. There may be an XP loss, which will be a simple enough task to gather back during normal play.

The combat system follows a familiar pattern, with hotkeys assigned to specific skills or spells. These skills themselves have an experience system of their own. The more you use a particular skill, the higher its level becomes, leading to greater damage or effect. As certain high levels are achieved, new skills open up. Certain levels will trigger extra job classes to open up, which again will assist you in customizing your character further.

I briefly skirted over a couple of the classes available, and will go into more detail and specifics of the class system later down the line. Suffice to say there will be plenty of choices at character creation, with more as you develop your character. Particular races will have strengths in certain classes and skill sets. But it is very possible to put in the time and multi-class your character by using different class weapons and spells to gain experience in these particular weapons.

Combat, as you can see, is a core feature of RF Online. Yes you can fight PvE as well as PvP, but it is in the RvRvR that the game comes into its own.